CRE Immersion: Introducing Students to the Industry

It
was an eye-popping introduction to the world of commercial real estate.

Walking
through Philadelphia’s first true “vertical neighborhood,” the FMC Tower
in University City, a cluster of high school students toured the trophy office
space of Brandywine Realty Trust. They moved on to the 28th-story, deluxe
amenity floor with its golf simulator, hydrotherapy spa, private theater,
73-foot-long rooftop pool, and a skyline terrace with fire pits. Then the
students moved higher in the 49-story tower to the luxury apartments that,
poised more than 400 feet above ground, offered panoramic views of the city.

By the end of the tour and its introduction to commercial real estate talk, students who previously knew little to nothing about CRE were reacting excitedly to the project and the profession.

The event was part of a 12-day CRE summer immersion program, sponsored by NAIOP with support from the Real Estate Executive Council (REEC), hosted by Villanova University and managed by NEXUS Summer Programs. Last summer, NAIOP, along with partners REEC and NEXUS, conducted the programs in Philadelphia, Atlanta and New York City. Now, the partners are actively seeking to expand the program across the country and striving to serve 1,500 high school students by 2023.

The NAIOP and REEC CRE Summer Intensive began with a one-city pilot in 2017 and a goal to address a deep and ongoing problem within CRE, namely a lack of diversity. White males comprise nearly 80 percent of senior leadership within the industry, according to a NAIOP benchmark survey.

“Commercial real estate, and NAIOP in particular, are
working to attract and incorporate minorities and women into our
businesses, particularly in leadership positions,” said Greg Fuller, 2019 NAIOP
chairman and president and COO of Granite Properties. “Diversity by age is very
important, as it provides diversity of thought. Given the technological
advances that have been made in the last decade, our companies need these
younger workers who intuitively understand technology.”

Consequently,
the summer immersion program recruits high-performing, minority students who
are about enter grades 11 or 12. University professors and industry experts
provide the students with an intensive education experience that covers
fundamentals of commercial real estate, information about how to excel in
college, and guidance on how to deal with social and emotional aspects of
college life, including stress, anxiety and gender or racial bias. Students
ranked the most popular sessions from the 2018 programs and they included
“Development and Construction,” “Marketing and Selling Real Estate,” “Public
Engagement in Private Projects,” “Real Estate Venture Capitalist,” “Real Estate
Curriculum — Technology,” “99 Motivators for College Success” and “How to
Present like a Professional.”

In addition,
field trips to commercial real estate sites and a team project/competition
based on one of those visits clearly stoked students’ excitement in the
industry. Students toured Tyler Perry Studios, the Porsche Test Track,
Atlanta’s Ponce City Market and other sites. A spinoff, long-weekend program in
2017 and 2018 gave students in Washington State a shorter CRE immersion and
opportunities to tour the Amazon Biodome, Oculus and Tableau for Architecture.

Students
in the Villanova program were challenged to come up with a development plan for
Festival Pier — a reclaimed site along the Delaware River. Students visited the
site, met with the executive director of the Delaware River Waterfront
Corporation (the nonprofit tasked with redeveloping the region) and learned
about the region’s history, masterplan and community desires. In a little over
a week, teams of students crafted and presented plans and financial analyses
for mixed-use developments.

“We
were blown away by the quality of the presentations and the students’ level of
interest in the subject matter,” said Brandywine Realty Trust Vice President of
Development Joe Ritchie, a NAIOP Greater Philadelphia board member and an
organizer of the summer program. “On our board, we have folks who judge MBA competitions
and they said the kids weren’t too far off the level of MBA presentations.”

Analyses
of the 2017 pilot and the three 2018 programs show the summer experience had
dramatic impact on the participants. Among participants in a session at Georgia
State, none of the students had any previous knowledge of careers in CRE.
Following the program, 37.5 percent said they intend to major in CRE in
college, 18.8 percent plan to pursue a CRE minor and 50 percent said they are
interested in a career in CRE.

Evan
Batiste, a high school student from Middlebury, Connecticut, was among the
participants in the Columbia University/Fordham University session who had no
previous knowledge of CRE. But he loved
the program and his team won the session’s competition to create an adaptive
reuse plan for a Harlem brownstone. Batiste, a high school senior, decided to
pursue a CRE career, has secured a college acceptance and is already thinking
about ways to get involved in the industry.

“This
program doesn’t just expose you to an industry; it gives you connections that
will help you later in life,” he said. “If you need an internship, there are
people who will help you find one.”

Among
all the participants in the CRE summer sessions, 95 percent expressed interest
in landing CRE internships.

In
Philadelphia, Ritchie and his fellow board members are already plotting to make
the summer program an annual event and to build on it.

“Our
idea is to use the success of the program as a platform to expand how we might
push diversity,” Ritchie said, added that talks have already started about
establishing internships, scholarships and other initiatives.

For a look inside the CRE summer immersion program at Georgia State, watch the video produced by instructors and students.

Linda Strowbridge is a freelance business writer based in Baltimore, MD. A long-time journalist in Canada and the U.S., Linda now writes extensively about the built environment, economic development, green business and the insights of business leaders.

About NAIOP

Since 1967, NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, has become the leading organization for developers, owners and investors of office, industrial, retail and mixed-use real estate. NAIOP comprises 18,000+ members and provides strong advocacy, education and business opportunities through a powerful North American network. Visit our website at www.naiop.org.